Saxo Bank has announced that the Denmark financial regulator FSA has approved the transaction which will see China’s Geely Group take control of the Copenhagen based online trading services provider.
The transaction, first announced in October 2017, saw China’s Geely and Finland’s Sampo take control of Saxo Bank, buying out TPG Capital and SinarMas in a transaction which valued Saxo Bank at $1.56 billion. Geely – which is known for manufacturing London Taxis via its Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd (HKG:0175) unit – of will own 51.5% of Saxo Bank, while Sampo will own 19.9%.
However Saxo Bank said that there are other remaining approvals which are expected to delay the closing of the transaction for another several months.
Founder and CEO, Kim Fournais, commented:
It is very positive that Geely has received approval from the Danish FSA to take up a majority stake in Saxo Bank. We look forward to receiving the remaining approvals to close the deal. We expect to have the final approvals within the next months.
When the final approvals are in place, Saxo Bank co-founder Lars Seier Christensen, TPG Capital and SinarMas will sell 100% of their shares to Geely and Sampo. Kim Fournais’ stake of 25.71% remains unchanged.
Since the deal was announced Saxo Bank has worked aggressively to make changes at the company, which have included the sale of its Danish private banking business Privatbank for $60 million.